The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-03

| titled Astounding Grace ut is all OF
grace that / am saved" has been on the
lips of hundreds of dying Christians.
The boy Sammy was right when, being
examined for admission into church menu
| bership, he was asked: "Whose work
was your salvation" and he answered:
apart mine and part Gods"
| Then the examiner asked: "What part
did you do, Sammy?" and the answer
was: 81 opposed God all could, and he
did the rest" o, the height of it, the
depth of it, the length of it, the breadth
of it, the Grace of God!
Mr.. Fletcher having written a pamphlet
that pleased the King, the King offered
swered:
"There is only one thing want, and
that is more grace"
Yes, blood Bought hearers, grace to live
by and grace to die by. Grace that saved
the publican, that saved Lydia, that saved
the dying thief, that saved the jailer, that
saved me. But the riches of
that grace will not be fully
understood until heaven breaks in upon
the soul. An old Scotchman, who had
been soldier in one of the European
wars, was sick and dying in one of our
American hospitals. His one desire was
| to see Scotland and his old home, and
once again walk the heather of the high
lands and to hear the bagpipes of the
Scotch regiments. The night that the old
Scotch soldier died, a young man some
what reckless but kind hearted, got COM
pany of musicians to come and play under
the old soldiers window, and among the
instruments was a bagpipe. The instant
| that the musicians began the dying old
man in delirium said:
"What's that, what's that? Why it's the
regiments coming home. That's the tune,
yes, that's the tune. Thank God, I have got
| home once more!"
"Bonny Scotland and Bonny Doom"
We're the last words he uttered as he
passed up to the highlands of the better
country. And there are here to-day hun
dreds homesick for Heaven, some becaus g
you have so many bereavements, some be.
cause you have so many ailments, home
sick. very homesick, for the fatherland Of
Heaven, and the music that you want to
hear now is the song of free grace, and the
music you want to hear when you die is
free grace, and forever before the throne
of God you will sing of the
Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though
he was rich, for your sakes became poorl
Yes, yes, for our sakes! 1t was not on
pleasure excursion that he came, for il
was all pain. 1t was not on astronomical
exploration, for he knew this world as
well before he alighted as afterward. It
was not because he was compelled to come,
for he volunteered. 1t was not because it
was easy, for he knew that it would be
thorn, and spike, and hunger, and thirst,
and vociferation of angry mobs For
olyoc
forgive your wrong doing, to companion.
ship your loneliness, to soothe your
sorrows, to sit with you by the new
made grave, to bind up your wounds in
the ugly battle with the world and brin q
you home at last, kindling up the mists
that fall on your dying vision with the
sunlight of a glorious morn. For your
sake! No, will change that. Paul will
not care and Christ will not care if
change it, for l must get into the blessed
ness of the text myself, and so I saw:
"For our sakesw For we all have our
temptations, and bereavements, and con.
flicts. For our sakes! We who deserve
for our sins to be expatriated into world
as much poorer than this as this earth
was poorer than Heaven. For our sakes
But what a fruitful coming down to take
us gloriously up.
When Artaxerxes was hunting, Tire
bazus, who was attending him, showed
the King rent in his garment. The King
said: "How shall mend it?" SPY civ.
ing it to me-" said Tirebazus. Then the
King gave him the robe, but commanded
i'm never to wear it, as it would be inap-
propriate.
See the startling and comforting fact
While our Prince throws off the habit, he
not only allows US to wear it, but com.
mands US to wear it, and it will become us
well, and for the poverties of our spiritual
state we may put on the splendors OF
Heavenly regalement. For our sakesl o,
the personality of this religion! Not
an abstraction, not an arch I'M
der which we walk to behold elaborate
masonary, not an ice castle like that
which Empress Elizabeth of Russia over
hundred years ago ordered constructed,
winter with its trowel of crystal cement
ing the huge blocks that had been quar-.
, ried from the frozen rivers of the North
. but fathers house, with wide hearth
cracking hearty welcome. A religion
of warmth and inspiration, and light and
. cheer; something we can take into our
hearts, and homes, and business recrea-
tions, and joys and sorrows. Not an
uilhahaSedpie gnu, ike tue galley
presented to Ptolemy, which required
four thousand men to row, and its
draught Of water was so great that il
could not come near the shore, but some
thing you can run up any stream of an
noyance, however shallow. Enchantment
now, enrichment for ever!
Right about face! for Won are going in
the wrong direction. While YOU are in a
favorable mood for it, enter into life.
Here and just now decide every thing
that makes for peace and Heaven. Agas-
siz says that he has stood at one place in
the Alps where he could throw chip into
the water in one direction and it would
roll on into the German Ocean, or he
could throw a chip into the water in
another direction and it would reach the
Black sea by the Danube, or he could
throw chip in another direction, and it
would enter the Mediterranean by the
Rhone How far apart the Mediterranean,
and the Black sea, and the German ocean
Standing to-day on this Alps of Gospel
privilege, you can project your soul into
right currents, and it will roll on into the
ocean of life, or project it in the wrong
direction, and it will roll into the sea of
| pr,Sl e.